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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Back: The Last Weeks of Summer

Still waiting on the professional wedding pics, so I'm back to blogging about what we've been doing since the honeymoon. Thanks for being patient while I backtrack. The wedding and honeymoon were a big part of our lives, and I definitely wanted to blog about them, both for my own memories and as a way to thank and recognize the hard work and contributions our family and friends made to the events. So, anyway, here's what we've been up to!

We returned from our honeymoon on July 25th, and the last 3.5 weeks of summer were pretty busy.

While in Austin, we saw an incredible production of Thom Pain Based on Nothing at Hyde Park Theatre (still a few performances left) and attended the beautiful wedding of my high school friend Laura and her now husband, Jon:

On July 30th, we returned to Midland with about half of our wedding presents and Lola and Zoe in tow. A few days later, we met my mom in San Angelo (where she has family) and got the rest of our gifts from her. We had a busy but fun few days unpacking all the new gifts into our apartment.

We got all new flatware and my friend Bailey's business Antiquaria put together all of our settings of dishes, which are mix-matched blue and yellow patterns. Finally, I pulled out the place mats and napkins from our first wedding shower, and we saw how everything looked pulled together.

It was love at first bite! :)

We also set up our bedroom with the new quilt Brendan's grandma (paternal side) made and the new blanket his grandparents (maternal side) gave us for our wedding. All the colors match perfectly in our bedroom. We used a gift card to buy a white duvet cover to replace the cover we used to have. I love the look of our "new" bedroom and looked forward to seeing what our quilt would look like for the entire year we were engaged (Brendan's grandmother makes a wedding quilt for each of her grandchildren).

The blanket from Brendan's grandparents has the Irish wedding blessing, our names, and our wedding date on it. It's from the blessing Brendan's grandfather gave at our wedding. Very special!

We also got new sheets, which are of course monogramed (I love monograms and Brendan accepts this).

Since returning home, we attended the farmer's market and enjoyed cooking together with all of our fancy new kitchen things. We had time to just relax and enjoy being married as well. We watched all the Harry Potter movies on Blu Ray...that was definitely necessary! I returned to yoga class on July 31st and have been attending twice a week since. Getting back into exercising has been challenging, but also feels good. I lost some strength and flexibility, but I'm determined to work on getting stronger.

On August 10th, we celebrated the marriage of our good friends here, Stephanie and Dagan:

We went on a straightening up spree and organized the closet and gave many clothes and things to our local Goodwill. I got a new Elfa dresser, which is the best thing to happen to my closet in years. It made it much easier to get organized.

We've also been writing many, many thank you notes. Not quite done, but my goal is to finish before the students come back to school on August 26th.

We took a weekend trip to Lubbock to see our friends the Shews before they move to California. We had a great time, and we are certainly going to miss them, but know they will love living in CA (and of course, we hope to visit them there as well).

Finally, on August 19th, it was time to return to work. It was exciting to see my new name on the office door! Going through all the paperwork to change my name this summer? Not as exciting, but thankfully, that process is almost done.

I'm excited to be at Midland College and can tell it's going to be a fantastic year. The summer was amazing, and we're a bit sad to see it go, but also, we know that so many exciting things are ahead. I'm looking forward to getting back into the classroom, back to writing, grading, tutoring, and lesson planning, and back to growing as a teacher.

Last night, I realized it had been exactly two years since we moved to Midland. So many things have happened in that two years: I went from adjuncting at Midland, to teaching full time at Howard, to now teaching full time at Midland again. Brendan and I went from dating, to engaged, to married. Midland went from being a strange place to being our home where we have many friends. We progressed from poor graduate students to people with careers and a savings account...in so many ways, the last two years have been hugely transformative.

Two years ago when we moved here, we really just hoped for the best and rolled with the punches. I'm learning that all of life requires that attitude, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the next school year brings.

Here's to Summer 2013! It truly was just what we needed and it was an amazing, amazing 3 months that we'll have happy memories of forever.

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WELCOME

Welcome to Lola & Zoe, a blog about creative, fun, and healthy living. Lola and Zoe started in February 2011, when I had the idea to write about everything that interests me, kind of like trail mix, only in a blog. This is our internet home for vegetarian recipes, creative home decor, fun arts and crafts projects, ideas for a healthy lifestyle, book and movie picks, occasional meanderings about fashion and beauty, some personal stories about teaching, life after M.F.A, homeownership, and of course, a few good miscellaneous surprises. I live in west Texas, with my wonderful husband, Brendan, and our two crazy cats, who also serve as the namesake of this blog. Happy reading!Stacy, Brendan, Lola & Zoe